Preheat oven to 175ºC/350ºF.Grease two 22cm cake pans with butter, line the bottom with parchment paper, grease the parchment paper and flour the pans.Combine milk, eggs whites and extracts in a small bowl with a fork. Set aside.Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in an electric mixer and mix at slow speed with a paddle attachment – since I don’t have it, I used the regular beaters of my mixer.Add butter. Continue beating at slow speed until mixture looks like wet sand (If you're doing this by hand, sift the dry ingredients together and rub in butter).Add all but 120ml (½ cup) of milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 ½ minutes. Add remaining milk mixture and beat for an additional 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary. Do not overmix.Divide batter evenly between prepared pans and gently shake to smooth batter. Bake 30-35 minutes, until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.Let cakes cool in the pans for 15 minutes then invert onto racks to cool completely before frosting.Unfrosted cakes can be frozen for 1-2 weeks.

Serves 16-18

This recipe was posted on the Portuguese version of my blog on Sep. 27, 2006.

Did you hear my screams of delight? That is so incredibly fabulous! I can't stop admiring it. It's just perfect and has such meaning in every decoration. I can only imagine how delighted she was to get that.

patricia!!! you are so talented. this is a masterpiece, to say the least. your mother-in-law must adore you! i have never used fondant. i so desperately want to learn more about baking but until my waistline starts shrinking voluntarily, i doubt i ever will... maybe i'll be more inclined when i have some rascals to eat up my creations.

Linda, don't even tell me about waistlines... lolMine has gone wild years ago but I don't seem to have the will power to get it back where it belongs. :)My MIL is really good to me, I'm lucky to have her!Thank you for all your kind words. I love working with fondant so, when you want to start, I'd be glad to exchange info with you!

Joey, tks, sweetie! This cake is so fabulous that I keep baking it over and over again.

Helene, I'm so flattered! I have you on my "baking pedestal", did you know that?? :)